Commodity Trade and Price Trends, 1989-91

This collection of papers discusses the need to revise national accounting systems to better reflect environmental considerations. The 18 papers presented here were written by some of the foremost experts in environmental accounting. The collection is organized into three main parts. Part I argues for the accounting of the environment as capital, for including natural assets in national accounts, and for the integration of environmental and economic accounting. Part II examines applied work and case studies in developing and industrial countries. Papers in this section look at revised accounting methods in Mexico and Papua New Guinea, natural resource accounting in Australia, and environmental accounting in the Chesapeake Bay region of the United States. Part III includes papers on valuation and depreciation of minerals and other depletable resources. It also considers the treatment of forestry and deforestation in national accounts. National governments, the World Bank, and other intergovern- mental organizations have relied on the half-century-old system of national accounts (SNA) for assessments of an economy's condition and direction. The World Bank and the United Nations Statistical Agency (UNSTAT) have been working to revise that system to include environmental accounting. The papers in this volume illustrate that work.World Bank Staff is the author of 'Commodity Trade and Price Trends, 1989-91' with ISBN 9780821313596 and ISBN 0821313592.